Early urbanizations in the Levant

Description:

"This work examines the first cycle of urbanization, collapse, and reurbanization in the Levant during the 4th to 2nd millennia B.C.E. The core of the study is a detailed analysis of settlement fluctuations and material culture development in the Hula Valley, at the crossroads between modern Israel, Syria, and Lebanon. Focusing on field data and a close reading of the material text, the book emphasizes the variety in patterns of cultural and social change revealed when small, densely settled regions are carefully scrutinized. Using the concepts of time-space edges and disjunctive change, the study suggests new scenarios to explain changes in the regional archaeological record and considers their implications for existing reconstructions of social evolution in the larger region. The Levant is shown to be composed of a fluid mosaic of polities that moved along multiple, if often parallel, paths towards and away from complexity." "This book should be of interest to anyone studying the archaeology of early state formation in the Near East, particularly in areas of 'secondary' urbanization - Palestine, Syria, and Anatolia. With its detailed consideration of settlement patterns and ceramic production, it is also indispensable for the study of the early history of the two major sites in the area, Tel Dan and Tel Hazor, being the first attempt to integrate the results of excavations at these sites with information from archaeological surveys of the valley that sustained them."--Jacket.

subjects: Ancient Cities and towns,  Antiquities,  Prehistoric Land settlement patterns,  Urbanization,  Cities and towns, ancient,  Land settlement,  Israel, antiquities

Places: Hula Valley,  Hula Valley (Israel),  Israel